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The One?
UHND.com - DJ Murphy
11/14/2001
Last Monday night I watched the Oakland Raiders, led mostly by quarterback Rich Gannon and an old friend who came through with a couple of TD catches, run roughshod over a divisional foe who had had their number in the recent past, and the possibilities had me quivering. With every closeup of every furrowed brow, every curled-lip snarl, I had dangerous visions -- visions of Carlyle Holiday running our very own version of the West Coast offense (another Kevin Rogers pupil graduating to a superior offensive system). This mirage I had created for myself was nurtured by every internet rumor I had lapped up during our latest season of sorrow. The most recent of these -- Coach Gruden already signed, sealed and delivered along with blast-from-the-past Vinny Cerrato to shore up his only evident weakness – clearly designed to fuel the fantasies of suffering Domers everywhere. The visions continued early into this week. Chucky, in gold and blue adidas, spitting and snarling his way into Notre Dame lore. Very dangerous. But is Jon Gruden really the right man for the job? In our very own Matrix, is he The One?
Great college programs are headed by strong personalities. The athletes, while integral, are diminished by the force of will of the coach. The coach becomes the focus and, if he lasts long enough, the icon. Bob Davie is certainly the focus but, so sadly evident, will never be an icon wherever he happens to land. Successful Notre Dame teams have always been about the coach: Rockne, Leahy, Parseghian, Holtz. The newly-crowned king Joe Paterno is the enduring soul of Penn State. Steve Spurrier routinely overshadows his players. In just two years, Bob Stoops took a dismal Oklahoma program (in worse shape than the current Notre Dame team) to a perfect season and a national championship. And perhaps the most striking example is Bobby Bowden. For all the superior athletes who have cycled through his program, Bowden is the only face (but hardly the fashion plate – c’mon Big Man, the Oakleys were one thing but please lose the Urban Sombrero). The players are rendered almost irrelevant and invisible behind a succession of tinted visors.
What makes a prospective coach the right man for a college job? The blueprint is fairly simple: recruit, develop, teach, inspire. Simple? Yes. Easy? No.
Recruiting is the most obvious potential shortcoming for Gruden. He’s been in the pro game full time since 1992. As an offensive assitant at SE Missouri St., Pacific and Pitt he has certainly been exposed to the job but he’s never had to be the man with the plan. The juicy internet tidbit I mentioned above was probably engineered specifically to allay that fear. With Vinny Cerrato in the fold we would be a recruiting juggernaut a la the late 80’s, right? But Vinny’s been away from campus for a while himself and, at any rate seems to be a sure pipe dream to me. Can Gruden handle the job alone? Observers of the situation with decidedly rose-colored glasses will tell you that competing for free agents in the NFL these days is the same thing. I submit that college recruiting is a little slimier. In the words of former Sports Illustrated writer Ralph Wiley in an article on Gruden coming to ND: "Don’t forget to factor this in – Jon Gruden hasn’t lived, and died a little inside, until he’s had to tell some 18-year-old, ‘I need you.’ " In other words, he might find the process so distasteful that he can’t succeed at it. If recruiting gets you that down you’re not going to be any good (as an aside, Wiley also said in the same article "all that noise TV talking heads say about it being ‘tough to recruit at Notre Dame because of academic standards’ is dogcrap designed to protect the coach. If you can’t win at Notre Dame, you can’t win as a football coach on the D-1 level." Amen.).
So will he be willing and able to recruit? Will his time away from preps leave him disconnected and ineffective. Or will the obvious appeal of the Silver and Black and his success at the NFL level be a lure to recruits with their eyes on the prize? Will he be our Neo, leading us out of the dark underground back into the light? It remains our biggest question and will require a larger leap of faith for us to get over than any other facet of his resume.
Developing and teaching seem not to present obstacles to his hiring. He has been extraordinarily successful at a very young age. He is a disciple of Mike Holmgren (himself a disciple of everybody’s offensive Yoda, Bill Walsh). The West Coast offense, perhaps the most successful in football today, runs in his veins. The X’s and the O’s should not be a problem.
That brings us to inspiration and that is the one thing about Jon Gruden that has us all so excercised. It’s the one thing that will cloud our judgement if he is hired and turns out to be another pretender. If he isn’t Neo it will be ourselves who talked us into believing in the first place. It is what makes me believe it can be so. We see the Clay High School diploma and hear stories of Gruden being moved to trade blows to defend Our Lady’s honor. We see a prowling animal on NFL sidelines with an apparently unmatched passion for winning.
All these things seem to add up to a keeper worthy of our flame. A man young enough to lead for many years, to become a legend possibly. An accomplished tactician. A passionate leader. A man with deep feelings that are the same as our feelings. Even when I try to be dispassionate I can’t. I disregard the fact that he seems too good to be true. I disregard the fact that one of the most important skills he’s required to have might be the one he doesn’t. I feel like he has it all even when I know he doesn’t. This is my problem and that of just about everyone else I’ve talked to. I don’t know, but I do believe.
He is The One.